


Scones

by sugar_star



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: AU prompt, College AU, Fluff, M/M, Rating May Change, knows each other/doesn't know they know each other, may have minor relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-08-27 06:09:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8390230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugar_star/pseuds/sugar_star
Summary: Azumane Asahi is bad with computers, and in love with scones from the bakery off-campus. What do those two things have to do with one another? A white haired punk with a smooth voice that he just can't get enough of.
//Sorry I'm so bad at summaries and titles,,,//





	1. Chapter One

"You're sure you've already reset the modem, Azumane-san?" The voice on the other end of the phone sounded almost condescending, but Asahi was grateful for it nonetheless. He was shit with computers, so he was glad that the IT department of the college had an overnight operator. It was the only time the brunette ever got to do any work for his classes, and without the money to get a new computer, he was forced to use what his best friend Daichi called a giant, outdated paperweight. Not to mention, whoever this IT guy was, he had a fantastic voice, Asahi almost forgot he was supposed to respond sometimes, he'd get so hung up on it. The voice was nearly dripping with irritation. "Azumane-san..."

"A-ah, yes, I have, sorry..." He mentally slapped himself.

"There doesn't appear to be any server issues tonight, it's a weekend so it should be fairly quicker than usual... Have you thought about just getting a new computer? Even a good modem is shit if you're using an outdated system."

Asahi sighed into the phone, rubbing at the scruff he'd neglected to trim in favor of cramming for tests. "Yeah, I've got some money saved up, but I don't even know where to start."

The was a pause over the line and Asahi thought for a moment that maybe the call had been dropped. He jumped at the sudden sound of clanking on keys, the smooth voice proceeding once more. "Might I suggest something, then?" Asahi was all ears, and, as if he had said it aloud, the operator continued. The words that came though, gave Asahi the impression of a devilish fiend smirking at his grief-filled lack of technological knowledge. "Anything but that piece of shit you have now."

Asahi grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose in slight annoyance. "Yeah, thanks, got it."

The giggle on the other end of the line was bewitchingly mischievous. "Have a good night, Azumane-san. Don't hesitate to call again in the future."

He'd have no problem with that, he thought, as he set his cell phone down on his desk. He thumbed through paperwork as he waited for his old computer to finish whatever the hell it was trying do. The silence was pleasantly filled by the voice of the IT tech in the back of his mind as he managed to comprehensively organize his material in time for his computer to final catch up.

\---

The following day was uneventful, as usual. Asahi was heading to his usual routine spots, a convenience store near the campus, stopping by his friend Sugawara's flower shop in the district to say hello, and then his favorite. The bakery. It was his favorite for a couple reasons. The smell of the pastries and bread gave him some weird sense of calm, his childhood friend, Nishinoya Yuu worked there part-time on the weekends, recently getting a spot to work right after his classes on the weekdays, and it was usually pretty quiet in there. Not to mention the scones were delicious, Nishinoya had brought him some once when the taller was reluctant to try them, but now he was hooked on the damned things, and he ordered them nearly every time he went in, which was a lot.

Today, much to Asahi's slight disappointment, the counter case was empty of his somewhat guilty pleasure. They had been out for a while, Nishinoya had told him they were quick to sell, people from Japan evidently loved the damn things. There was a snicker from above the brunette, causing him to scowl and glance upwards. His scowl only deepened. Nishinoya had needed extra help around the bakery, the boss had insisted on it, so he had brought his somewhat distant acquaintance to work with him. By distant, he meant a friend of a friend that was too hard to nailed down to ask him if he knew anyone. Asahi wasn't too fond of this guy, though he didn't really have much against him other than he acted too goddamn arrogant. He never talked to anyone, customer or co-worker, and he often fiddled with his phone, acting as nonchalant as possible behind the counter. He looked younger than Asahi, probably by a couple of years. Long, surprisingly natural, white hair framed a slightly rounded face, and was always loosely tied back though a few strands dangled out of the hair ties hold. And he had the most piercing, almost condescending, blue eyes, they were almost as clear as ice and framed by white lashes. If Asahi didn't know any better, he'd say the younger glowed in about any light.

But he was such a shithead punk, it was almost a shame. "What are you snickering at?" All he received was a cocky half smile and a shrug, the clerk going back to his phone. How could someone so rotten look so good. This had to be against the laws of nature. Asahi quickly dismissed the attitude and went toward the door to the kitchen. He peeking inside to see a mess, Nishinoya bustling around, covered in lord knew how much flour. An exasperated sigh left the older male, smiling at his best friend's bustling antics before stepping inside. "Nishinoya, you seem busy, as always."

The much shorter man whipped his head around and near immediately beamed up at his friend. "Asahi-san, nice of you to stop by! I would have figured you would be busy with school work today." He gave the giant man a flour covered pat on the shoulder, beaming all the while. "I hope the new guy isn't giving you any problems."

Asahi chuckled bashfully at his friend's usual enthusiasm, dusting off the flour from his jacket. "No, no, it's fine. He seems to find it amusing that I get disappointed when you're out of those scones. Does he never talk, by the way? I can't remember ever hearing him talk to anyone, even here."

"Eh, Hinata says he hates to talk people but he does have an attitude that gives that assholeish impression since he doesn't. But he assured me he's a good guy. He works real hard, too!"

Quirking an eyebrow, Asahi glanced back into the main storefront. The new guy was helping a couple of customers for now. "Really?"

"Yeah! We take shifts back here, but he's not much of a baker so he stays out front. Hinata told me he's a really good dancer though, and he plays some kind of instrument, maybe? Artsy guy."

"I guess I could see that from him. He goes to our school, right?"

"Oh, yeah! He totally does! I think he's a freshman like Shouyou, though, so we probably don't run into him too often. His name is Yurichiro Aikosawa. Oh, hey!" Nishinoya tapped at Asahi's arm with the back of his hand, the taller turning his attention back to his friend. "I heard somewhere he's good with computers! Maybe he can help you find a new one, Daichi mentioned you needed a new one but I know jack shit about that stuff."

Asahi's eyes widened, looking down incredulously. "Him?! He won't even give me the time of day, what makes you think he'd help me with something like that?"

"Maybe if you ask him he'll help! Computers might be the ice breaker for him, I guess not a lot of people know he likes them? Go on!!" Without any time to oppose, Asahi was unceremoniously shove from the kitchen and into the store front, the door swinging shut behind him. His panicked wailing grabbed the attention of the white haired male at the counter, and when he turned to face him, Asahi grimaced at the wry smirk he was given. He weighed his options. He could leave the store without saying a word, and probably more dignity than he would if he asked this punk looking kid for help. Or, he could ask this, albeit attractive, punk kid for help and either, most likely, get shut down or get some help that he desperately needs.

With a moment to steel himself, Asahi walked over the counter, nabbed a stray pen and business card and scribbled, "Would you be willing to help me with finding a new computer? Mine is shit and I don't know what to look for." The male behind the counter raised an eyebrow at the note before scribbling on a new card. The response surprised Asahi, maybe he had made the right decision to avoid actually speaking to the younger.

"Sure, I'm free tomorrow after classes, if that's a good time with you." Asahi nodded once at the note before writing underneath the other's handwriting. He took a small note of how pretty his handwriting was. "Meet outside main dorms?" Yurichiro nodded in return before waving him off suddenly, a customer behind Asahi looking a bit annoyed. The brunette quickly apologized before leaving the bakery with a farewell shout to Nishinoya. He hadn't heard his friend's reply about scones or whatnot, or the fact that he had, in frustration hollered his full name into the bakery. But someone sure had.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knowledge is usually one-sided, especially with Aikosawa, and he intends to keep it that way.
> 
> or
> 
> In which we discover Daichi is kind of a dick to his roommate

Tonight he had no real reason to call the IT technician, but here he was, unconsciously dialing the number with familiar movements. He didn't need his computer tonight, thankfully, and was simply looking over his papers for his morning classes. He was about to hit the little green phone icon on his screen before catching himself and immediately feeling silly. What he even say? 'Hey, not using my computer right now or anything, just wanted to call and see if your night was going well.' Well... he would do something like that, wouldn't he? This was part of the reason Daichi always teased him, he was too easy-going, too genuine? He didn't really get why that was such a problem, but considering the IT guy apparently was the only one on the night line, it was probably bad to tie him up. 'But he did say weekends were slower... Maybe I wouldn't be bothering him at all...'

Just as the thought started to get the better of him, the door to his apartment swung open, making the brunette jump with a small shriek, his phone tumbling to the ground. He hadn't realised that his fingers had grazed the call button at all. "D-Daichi-san, please don't scare me like that!" With a hand over his chest, Asahi heaved a sigh as the other just threw him a glare. "How was work?"

"Same old same old. Nothing special happened, except a couple new interns showed up from school. I think a couple were freshmen." The black haired male had shuffled out of his shoes and was in the process of pouring a late night coffee. He raised the pot toward Asahi, who simply held up a hand at the gesture. Daichi worked at a tech firm of some sort from what Asahi remembered, which is part of the reason Daichi was always so grumpy about his computer. "Not calling your boyfriend tonight?"

The look Asahi gave Daichi from across the apartment was so undignified that the other male couldn't help but laugh aloud at it. "I wish you wouldn't say that, Daichi-san. I feel bad enough about calling the poor guy every time I have to mess with that stupid thing as it is. I don't need you teasing me about it all the time..."

"Ah, lighten up. I was only joking." Daichi took another slow sip of coffee, glancing at his friend as he thumbed through a couple of papers. His eyes drifted to the light under their coffee table, Asahi's phone had apparently fallen. He could faintly see the phone on the on-going call screen, blinking at it. A wicked thought flashed through his mind. Walking over the sofa Asahi was sitting at, Daichi plopped down and made himself comfortable, sending a sideways look to the floor. The screen had a familiar number on it. A grin tugged his lips. "So!" he started, giving the goateed man a start. "You like that IT guy's voice, right?"

"Daichi-san..."

"Come ooon, humor me!" The look on the male's face gave Asahi the creeps.

"..So what if I do?" Asahi answered defensively as he tossed his papers down on the coffee table, obviously not going to get any peace to actually focus. "What's wrong with liking someone's voice?"

Daichi raised an eyebrow, smile not receding in the least. 'Hope you're getting an earful, kid.' "Have you even asked him his name? How can you talk to him so often and not." The look of embarrassment on the other's face was all the answer he needed. "You haven't?! Azumane Asahi..." Daichi tsked, shaking his head slowly at his friend. "I thought I taught you better?"

"Daichi, please... I can barely even talk to the guy as it is, I'm terrible with this crap and I end up calling him too often. Like hell I could ever work in a quick, 'Hey, what's your name?' ya know?"

Another mischievous grin. Daichi had set his cup down and was now reaching under the table, Asahi watching with a quirked brow. His face slowly turned white with horror as Daichi held up his phone, on the on-going call screen, the Overnight IT Line's number on the screen. Surely this wasn't real. "I guess you could always ask him now!" Asahi was certain he was going to die when he saw the call end abruptly, and immediately ran to his bedroom in unrelenting embarrassment, wicked Daichi laughing heartily from the other side of the door.

\---

Yurichiro was still somewhat reeling from the night before. When he had got home to his apartment, he had barely heard his ever annoying roommate's cheerful 'Welcome home Aiko-chan!' and the soon followed whining after his boyfriend had smacked him over the head. The white haired male hadn't been able to pull himself out of his own head. The conversation he had overheard after taking a call earlier was burned into his brain.

'Not calling your boyfriend tonight?'

'You like his voice, don't you?'

'Do you even know the guy's name?'

'Why not ask him now!'

"Ai-ko-CHAN!"

"Huh?" Yurichiro had blinked down at his roommate, who was now barely an inch away from him, his face puffed out like a child, his one hand on his hip, the other waving wildly in front of his no-doubt dazed face. "What do you want, Bakawa?"

The smaller's hackles had raised almost immediately and a string of pitiful whines left the sulking man as he skulked away. Yurichiro was grateful for his roommate's immaturity sometimes, it made him easy to get rid of when he didn't feel like talking. His mind had been still racing, the fact that an upperclassmen, especially an attractive one like Azumane Asahi, would like his voice. And not deny liking it. It had made his heart flutter a little. Iwaizumi, Oikawa's much calmer boyfriend had come over to the couch Yurichiro had managed to navigate to and sat, giving him his famous 'spill the beans' look. "He likes my voice..."

"Who?" The spiky haired male had raised a brow, before the other shot up as well. "Oh you mean that upperclassman you're so hung up on?" That earned a heated glare, but he continued. "What, did he tell you or something?"

"Not exactly... I had answered a call, but no one was talking, so when I went to disconnect, I heard him talking to someone. I kinda feel bad for listening to them but... Whoever he was talking to brought me up on the spot and eventually Azumane-san... Said he liked my voice." The evident happiness in his eyes died just as quickly as it arrived, the male groaning in embarrassment. "Then they evidently found the phone and I hung up when they said something about asking me my name." It had hit him then, "He doesn't even know me aside from my voice."

"You have to meet him tomorrow right? Why not tell him then?"

Yurichiro looked mortified. "After eavesdropping on them talking about me?! Are you insane! He would never talk to me again..."

Iwaizumi had smacked him over the head, much like he did to Oikawa before giving him his best 'big brother' grin. "You'll be fine! You've liked this guy forever, you see him everyday at the bakery, and pretty much talk to him all the time. I doubt he's gonna hate you or anything."

Yurichiro had given the older a tiny smile before heading to bed.

But now, as he stood in front of the main dormitories of the college campus, the normally cool and collected Aikosawa was a hot mess. He had managed to get out of class early enough to make it on time, but that only gave him more time to try and reconsider this. What if he messed this up? What if Asahi actually got pissed off that he had basically been hiding the fact that he actually was the guy he talked to every night, saw everyday. The thought made him start to panic, until he saw aforementioned man heading his way. He immediately steeled himself, shoving his hands into his pockets, trying his best to relax into what he usually acted like when Asahi came around, which was hard enough as it is. He gave the other a small wave.

Asahi was beyond a wreck though, he hadn't slept much after his mishap last night. His classes were hard to get through with his wavering vision. And now he was trying to maintain at least some composure as he headed toward the white haired male. He wasn't really looking forward to the other's usual bad attitude, but when he saw the other wave, and as soon as he walked up and gave with a small hello, Asahi noticed that he, also seemed fairly tired, and was pointedly stone-faced. It looked as if he had been up all night, too.

The two walked in silence all the way to the store, Asahi not really wanting to try and initiate conversation that he was sure would fall flat to the mute male. He also didn't want to make the other uncomfortable. Once they arrived at the store, however, Aikosawa turned on his heels to stare up at the brunette. Asahi noticed he wasn't actually that much shorter than him, but he still managed give him a through the eyelash gaze that made Asahi nearly jump at the sudden intensity. It looked like he was thinking about doing something, Asahi noted the straight line the other's lips had pursed into. There was a long silence between the two before the white haired male turned again and stepped into the store. The brunette was thoroughly confused, but he didn't want to pry.

It didn't take all that long to find something, apparently Aikosawa knew more than just a little about computers. He didn't ask for any assistance in his search, Asahi didn't even try to get in his way. They left the shop maybe thirty minutes after arriving, and Asahi was silently grateful. He hated computers with a passion. There was another tangible silence between them before the brunette sighed and pulled out his phone. Aikosawa had thrown him a half curious look only to look away when his own phone buzzed. There was a couple seconds of faint tapping before a smile curled his lips. Apparently, the two had very quick and ambitious friends, because Hinata had texted him, he could almost hear him shouting, that Nishinoya had sent him Asahi's number to give him. He entered it into his contacts before sending a quick message.

'Aikosawa: That was quick, eh?'

'Azumane: No kidding. I figured this would be easier than writing notes to each other?'

'Aikosawa: No doubt. So, something in particular on your mind?'

'Azumane: Well, I have no idea how to get this thing running. I'm really, really bad at this crap. I was wondering, if it's not much trouble, if you could help me.'

Aikosawa didn't answer right away, it looked like he might have crossed a line, but before Asahi could start typing an apology, the other beat him to it.

'Aikosawa: Unfortunately I have something to do today. Maybe you can call the IT Line later? I heard somewhere that the guy on the Overnight Line is pretty good.'

Asahi squirmed internally, but willed it away in favor of not eliciting a response from the oddly peaceful Aikosawa. He didn't really want to ruin this calmness. He would probably regret calling his 'vocal crush' as Daichi and Sugawara had disdainfully named it, especially if he had heard everything last night. Which he was 100% certain he had. But he didn't want to bother Aikosawa anymore than he already had, he seemed busy.

'Azumane: I'll do that, thank you.'

He could have sworn he saw a tiny smile on the smaller's stoic face, but surely it was just his own exhaustion setting in.

\---

"Ah, well done, Azumane-san. I'm surprised you found something, though, I surely thought you'd hang on to that old thing forever."

The breathy laugh on the other end of the line sent a shiver through Yurichiro's spine as he leaned back in the office chair of the now empty call office, hands resting behind his head. "I had good help finding something. I didn't even actually look at anything, they were very helpful." Despite wanting to secretly hear more praise from his upperclassman, Yurichiro shook the blush creeping up his neck away in order to start walking the older through the process of getting his new computer up and going.

The time passed by pleasantly slow, Yurichiro smiling nearly the whole time. It'd been a while since he had smiled so much. Once the setup was complete, Azumane sounded impressed at the speed of the thing. Of course, considering his anciet paperweight was so much older than the newer model computer Yurichiro had picked for him, anything was faster than that old thing. There was a small pause between his sincere wonder, and Yurichiro wondered if something had happened. Before he could press the mic comm on his headset to ask if something had gone wrong, Azumane spoke in a low tone that gave Yurichiro chills. "I was wondering... What's your name?"

The phone line was quiet for a long time, Asahi weighed the options silently, regretting the decision immediately. That is, until he hears a chipper laugh on the other end, that laugh immediately becoming engrained into the back of his mind. "Let's just say, I'd rather remain the enigma here. Maybe one day we'll meet, but not now. Have a good night, Azumane-san. Don't hesitate to call back if you need anything."

Asahi let the line go dead before staring down at his phone, a smile tugging on his lips before shutting down the computer and heading to bed. Little did he know that at the campus call center, Yurichiro was smiling up at the ceiling tiles with a similar smile, content with the day.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bashful Yurichiro is bashful

"Still none in yet? It's been forever." Asahi breathed out a sigh, staring into the glass case with a childish frown. Nishinoya was behind the counter today, apparently it was Aikosawa's shift in the kitchen. Asahi looked up at his best friend with a pout that definitely didn't fit the older male. "Do you not get anything to make them or..?"

"We do, but they sell out! I told you this before, Asahi-san!" Nishinoya blew at the strand of hair dangling in his face before gesturing wildly at the rest of the store. "Why not try something else? There's plenty here! Surely those stupid scones aren't the only thing you would eat." The smaller looked around the store before moving from behind the counter and scurrying across the bakery. Asahi didn't follow, but watched where he was heading. "Why not one of these?" The shorter was holding up some sort of tart it looked like, and Asahi wrinkled his nose. "Hey, these are good! You've never even had one!!"

"I don't really like sweets, you know that." The brunette opted to ignore the eye roll from his friend before glancing at the door to the kitchen. "What's he making? I thought you said he wasn't good at baking?"

"Not sweets, he makes the scones and stuff."

Asahi blinked slowly at the door before turning a faint shade of pink at the simple thought that the smart ass punk kid had been making the scones he bought almost every time he could. He didn't know why the notion bothered him so much, but maybe the white haired male could suggest something else for him if he didn't make sweets. Then again, the guy never talked to anyone, and even if they had sort of gotten over their weird tension Asahi doubted he was going to talk to him anytime soon. "Do you think he'd be able to show me something else I'd like?"

Nishinoya's shrug kind of solidified his thoughts. Aikosawa probably didn't even talk to Nishinoya. How that guy communicated enough to get a job or get into college was certainly beyond him. Asahi decided to try and take a peek at what the other could be working on, and Nishinoya looked like he wanted to stop him for a moment, but perhaps it was just his imagination. Without anything to keep him from doing so, the older walked over to the kitchen door and peeked inside.

The person standing in front of him was nearly covered in flour, a look of determination screwed onto his face as he prepared some sort of batter or dough it looked like. If Asahi didn't know the male had white hair, he would have assumed it was covered in flour, just like most of his clothing and patches of his barely tanned skin. The sight made Asahi chuckle, which proved a mistake. It was quiet in the kitchen and apparently his laugh wasn't as quiet as he had thought it was, Aikosawa's head snapped in his direction almost immediately, his icy blue eyes wide with what looked like horror. Asahi blinked at the range of emotions he had received, which evidently ended in a pure rage because he had to slam the door shut to defend himself from a bowl flying straight at his face. Nishinoya was cackling, leaned against the case at the counter, tears streaming down his cheeks at Asahi's now fearful expression.

\---

Yurichiro was thoroughly embarrassed to say the least. He hated baking, but he was okay at making anything that didn't require sugar for some reason. He had no idea why, but he was good enough to earn himself a shift in the kitchen. If he was honest enough with himself, he had started making those stupid scones more when he realised Azumane had been buying them. And if he was really honest with himself, the only reason he worked at that dumb call center at night was because Azumane had called almost all the time. Yurichiro had decidedly liked the other's voice, especially when he got nervous that he was bothering him. When he came to the bakery the first time, Yurichiro hid himself in the backroom because, boy, was he hot. He looked kind of like Jesus, except real. Kind of long hair that was real shaggy but in a good way, a goatee? Who had those anymore? He didn't care because the clearly older male looked great with it. He had soft eyes that made the white haired male melt into the floor.

The younger made the conscious decision that he was never going to let this guy bother him, even if it meant acting like an outright punk to him. But now, just now, he had a moment of weakness. He let the fact that Azumane caught him in the kitchen trying to make some damned thing for the bakery bother him. Currently he could hear the two friends bickering in the main store front, about what he couldn't tell, he didn't care. His flour covered face was going redder by the second. He wanted to die. Yurichiro glared down at the mixing bowl he had been working on and sighed. Might as well finish this, his shift was almost over anyways.

\---

Nishinoya had called him as he closed the bakery, talking about a gift he had for him. Asahi was skeptical, but when he heard the knock on his apartment door, he opened it to the shorter male holding up a box in a plastic bag from the bakery. "Aikosawa told me to give this to you? I don't know why, but I'm just the messenger here." Asahi nodded and took the bag from his friend, offering him to stay which he declined for heading home. He bid him goodbye and shuffled back to the sofa. The brunette untied the plastic bag and removed the small box inside it. He silently wondered if this was a prank, Aikosawa had seemed pretty upset earlier. Nishinoya even told him after his quite possible near death experience that the younger male was pretty bashful about baking. Maybe whatever in the box was revenge... When he opened it, there was a note over a piece of parchment paper, and under the parchment paper was about three of the scones he used to buy from the bakery, and three of what looked like some sort of cookie. He barely felt the smile curling at the corners of his lips as he glanced over at the note.

"Sorry about throwing a bowl at your face... Hopefully you'll like the cookies, they're not sweet..."

Asahi placed the note down next to his classwork and as he worked, he occasionally took a bite of his treats. He'd have to buy some of those cookies sometime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is pretty short, but the next one is longer, I promise! Full of fluff and stuff. Cookies for Asahi!!!


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, they have no idea about each other, but will that stop them from wondering?

The IT call center was always so boring. Aikosawa had considered leaving early, it was a Friday night, most college students, even the most studious, were probably out partying and drinking the night away. Usually the white haired male would occupy himself with his phone or a gaming system he carried around in his backpack. Tonight, though, he couldn't seem to focus on anything but scowling at the ceiling tiles. It was too quiet, ever since he had helped Asahi find that new computer, his nights in the call center were far too mind numbing and it made his anxiety flair up when he couldn't focus. Sure, he had texted the brunette often after the incident at the bakery. Asahi had mentioned once that he enjoyed the cookies he had sent over that day and Yurichiro made a note to make more on his next kitchen shift.

That was all though. They never really talked outside of that. Asahi would sometimes ask him about something pertaining to his computer, or sometimes ask him if he had anything else he could try at the bakery. Short conversations that Yurichiro sometimes found bothersome, if he was honest. Why, he wondered, he liked his upperclassman, liked seeing him at the bakery everyday. But that was just it. That was all they were, passing strangers really. Aikosawa's anxiety welled up inside him like a boiling pool of lava, ready to erupt and encompass his few pleasant thoughts. He sat upright and grabbed his phone, dialing his dorm room phone, praying Iwaizumi would be the one to answer. He nearly screamed when said man picked up. "Aren't you working."

It wasn't a question but Yurichiro gave a small hum in acknowledgement. "Yeah, but it's dead tonight."

There was a long pause, but it wasn't an awkward pause. It never was. Iwaizumi knew that Aikosawa only ever called late at night when he was by himself and his anxiety was starting to get the best of him. The kid was so easy to read, for being so silent most of the time. A few more minutes passed before Iwaizumi let out a small groan as if he was flopping onto the couch. Aikosawa had his head resting against the cold metal top of the computer desk he sat at. "What's wrong, Yurichiro."

Iwaizumi never asked questions, it made the male in question snort. "Nothing. It's just really quiet tonight."

"You know better than to lie to me."

Yurichiro let out a small sigh before sitting upright again. "Well... I don't know... I was just thinking about stuff and needed to talk, I guess."

"You know thinking isn't your strong suit." That earned the spiky haired male a quick cursing. "Is this about Azumane?"

Yurichiro groaned at the fact that, even only over the phone, Iwaizumi was the doting big brother that could always pick up on the younger's thoughts without hesitation. "He hasn't called in a week. He hasn't said anything to me at the bakery. I mean, granted I didn't talk to him anyway, and I threw a bowl at his head... But he hasn't said anything. And..." Aikosawa rolled away from the desk, chin resting his palm as he leaned his elbow onto his leg. "I've realised... we don't even have anything to talk about, so texting is a waste of time... Ugh, I'm pathetic, aren't I?"

"You sound pretty pathetic right now."

"Oh jeez, thanks. If I wanted to get made fun of I'd have hoped for Bakawa to answer the phone!"

Iwaizumi snorted at the notion. "This isn't like you. Whatever happened to the collected, stone cold ballerina boy that had moved in with us almost a year ago."

Yurichiro scrunched his nose at the nickname, if it could be called that. He hated being reminded of his first time meeting Iwaizumi. It was about a week after he had been accepted to the university on an advanced technolgies scholarship. An acquaintance from his dance class had mentioned that he went to the same university, the then always mute Aikosawa trying very hard to ignore the still giddily annoying Oikawa Tooru bounding around him. He had caved and went with the brunette to his dorm room that he shared with his boyfriend, Iwaizumi Hajime. Their first meeting was a weird conversation of varying glares and glances at Oikawa, who seemed to be able to mediate the silent conversation. It had been decided, he would stay there. At the time, he was far too focused on dance and school to bother working on his personality, which, frankly, was rotten. Now, about eight months later, Aikosawa found himself always talking to the spiky haired male that felt like a long lost brother. "I don't like being an asshole all the time like you, you know."

"Then call him."

The white haired male blinked, groaning into the speaker obnoxiously. "Iwaizumi, please. You think I haven't already tried? I look at his number and just... Freeze and chicken out. What would I even say? He doesn't know who I am! He'd hear me and hang up, never come to the bakery again, I'd never see him again. Hell, I'd probably have to quit my job out of embarrassment, Nishinoya-san is his best friend! He'd kill me for sure, that guy is fucking crazy!"

"Okay, one, calm down." Yurichiro hadn't noticed his heaving chest until Iwaizumi broke through his increasingly panicked spell. He took a slow breath before running a hand through his hair. "Two, how do you know he's going do any of that? You don't, before you attempt to answer that, you don't know if he'll hate you, or if he'll hang up, or hell maybe he'll put two and two together and just say 'Oh, it's you.' Which is probably more likely. If he's anything what you've gushed about us to, he doesn't sound like the kind of person to outright hate someone."

"Yeah, but..."

"No. Call him. Goodnight, Yurichiro."

Yurichiro groaned at the dead line, dropping his head down and wrapping his arms around the back of his head. Iwaizumi always did this, but he had a point. Aikosawa had never seen Azumane upset, he didn't seem like the kind of person to just up and get mad... Another groan left his throat as he brought his phone back down to eyeline. It wasn't like it'd be the end of the world if Azumane found out who he was... It would be kind of embarrassing, sure, he had overheard that entire conversation a week ago. He had sent him cookies to apologise for throwing a bowl at him. Up until now, he had acted like a hardass to the guy only to talk to him nearly the same night. It couldn't get any worse, could it?

"Not tonight... Some other time, for sure."

\---

Asahi noticed someone new at the counter of the bakery today. A bouncing young girl, blond hair, probably younger than him by a few years. She was close to Nishinoya's height he noticed. The girl gave him a nervously enthusiastic greeting, and when he asked for his best friend, she all but led him to the kitchen door herself before hurrying to the counter as a customer walked up. It was strange to have such a perky personality at the front, aside from Noya, for once. He didn't see any sign on the white haired male that usually worked around this time. For some reason, it gave Asahi a weird pain in his chest.

Walking through the kitchen door, Nishinoya was running around the kitchen as per usual. Asahi called out to him, smiling at the mess the shorter currently was. "Oh, Asahi! What's up?"

"Ah, just dropping by. Who's the new girl?" He jabbed a thumb at the door.

"Oh, her? Yachi? Another one of Hinata's buddies from class needed a job I guess."

Asahi nodded, glancing around the kitchen. No Aikosawa. "I guess Aikosawa isn't here today?"

Nishinoya raised an eyebrow, before giving his best friend a shit eating grin. "What's the matter, you miss him or something?" Asahi shot him a glare before the shorter turned to bustle around the kitchen once more. "He has the week off for some sort of dancing class he takes every once in a while. He won't be around until next Sunday I think."

The brunette blinked at his friend, who was tossing a couple of metal trays into the large oven on the other side of the kitchen. "A week?"

"Uh, yeah. He mentioned it to the boss about a month ago I think. It's in town, near the campus too, but I guess it's some crazy week long thing to get ready for competitions. He has to miss classes and everything, but he goes every other month."

"He told you that?"

"Nah, Hinata did! he said he goes with one of his roommates from college, what was his name..."

Asahi had decidedly tuned the younger out now, his hands falling to his sides to slide into his pockets. A whole week? He couldn't pinpoint as to why, but he felt another strange pain in his chest. It was kind of dumb. Really dumb, actually. He didn't know the snarky punk kid aside from seeing him at the bakery, but he felt a bit of a loss at the news that he wasn't going to be around for a while. No stupidly annoying smirk, no snickering from the counter when Nishinoya barked at him for pestering him, no chance of peeking in on the younger while he was in the kitchen, even if would probably end up costing him his life. No Aikosawa, for a solid week. Asahi felt strange, but he shook it off in favor of stepping in to the main part of the shop with Nishinoya.

After about fifteen minutes of trying to hold a solid conversation with the very jumpy young lady, indeed named Yachi, Asahi went on his way home. It took hi his usual thirty minutes to walk to his apartment complex near campus, five to walk up the few flights of stairs to his and Daichi's room. He walked in and announced he was home, Daichi, who had the day off and was currently slouched on the sofa with his boyfriend from the flower shop snuggled under his arm, called a quick welcome home. Sugawara Koushi sat up and turned toward the door to give Asahi one of his trademark angel smiles, but instead frowned at the other's rather deflated look. "Everything okay, Asahi?"

Daichi glanced over his shoulder as the man in question gave a weak "yeah" in response, shuffling his way into the kitchen, already headed toward the coffee. "You really shouldn't lie to Suga, he has that whole mom thing going on, ya know."

That earned the male a smack to the arm before Sugawara jumped up off the sofa and hurried into the kitchen, taking to one of the chairs around the small table.He gave Asahi a stern look and patted the chair next to him. Asahi relented, but kept his eyes trained on his coffee. "Asahi, what is it?" When the brunette didn't answer, Sugawara sighed and laid his hand over top of the other male's. "You know you can tell u s about whatever it is."

He didn't say anything, just stared into his coffee. What was he supposed to say? That he was upset that he wouldn't be able to see some punk kid for a week? Even though he had no real reason to be? It was bad enough that he had a crush on the IT guy he had been trying extremely hard not to call in fear that he would just be bothering him again. Was it possible, to his dismay, that he had a crush on Aikosawa, too? The thought o fit made Asahi deflate even more, his forehead landing gently against the table. "I don't know... I just don'y feel very well today."

"Miss your boyfriend?" Daichi called from the couch, in an attempt to at least pull a reaction of any kind from his friend. When it didn't do anything but cause Asahi sigh, the man scowled at hi boyfriend who gave the brunette next to him a worried look.

"Asahi... Look, you might need to take some time off. Tomorrow! And maybe you could... oh, call the IT line tomorrow night! Make up an excuse to call, make up anything at all. You'll get to at least hear him, for a while."

"What's the point, Suga?" Asahi pushed his untouched coffee away to the middle of the table and crossed his arm in front of him on the table, resting his chin against them. "I don't know him. His name, anything. Just his voice. I doubt it would help anyways, considering that's not the problem..."

Sugawara gave Daichi another glance before turning his full attention back to Azumane. "Well, what is the problem?"

"There's.. a kid that works at the bakery with Nishinoya. The one who helped me with finding my new computer."

Daichi had moved from the couch and was now standing behind his boyfriend, a hand on his shoulder, the other stealing the cup of coffee from the table as his own. "You mean the one that sent you those cookies?"

"Oh, someone sent Asahi cookies? How cute!"

"He apparently almost took the big dolt's head off with a mixing bowl."

Asahi cleared his throat, causing his friends to snicker before Suga motioned for him to continue. "Yes, the one who sent the cookies. He's not going to be at the bakery for a week." The brunette chewed his lip, a hand finding it's way to the back of his neck. "I feel... Complicated about it? The kid's a punk, no doubt about it, but I kind of get the impression that he just doesn't like to talk to anyone. It doesn't stop this weird feeling I get knowing he won't be there to be such an asshole for a solid week."

Suga was nearly squealing in delight, squirming in his chair, giving the wandering Daichi a sparkly eyed look that made Asahi feel ill all of the sudden. "Oh, Daichi, our Asahi has a real crush now! How sweet is that?" Yeah, he was going to be sick.

"No, no I do not. He's a freshman, firstly. I never see him, his classes are far different from mine. Secondly, I don't know him either! I see him at the bakery, and that's it. We've texted before, but he seemed uncomfortable with it so I decided to just leave him be. Third, he goes to these dance things for an entire week like every other month so harboring any sort of crush on him would be just silly if he's so busy!"

"Asahi, you know you sound like you're just pulling this straight from your ass, right?" Daichi had made his way over to the coffee pot again, filling his stolen cup to the brim again. He really needed to start cutting back on the stuff.

Suga, on the other hand, perked up at the mention of a dance class. "Oh, I know that dance class! Oikawa-san goes to the same one, once every other month! I've been there once, it's crazy intense, like a training camp. They stay there the whole week just so they can focus solely on preparing for competitions."

Asahi, shamefully, visibly brightened. If Suga had been there, he knew where it was, he could give him directions to get there. No, but the would come off kind of stalker-ish... Just showing up like that. Asahi glanced at his hands, then back at Suga. "Koushi, would you take me there tomorrow? I feel like seeing him would help, even just a little."

Sugawara blinked at his taller friend before one of his angelic smiles graced his features. "Of course, Asahi."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel really good about this one! I don't know when I'll get the next one out between work and the fact that Pokemon is going to be consuming my life soon enough. But I hope this is good enough for now!


	5. Chapter Five

Oikawa was always a bouncing fool at dancing class, but Aikosawa noted that he was even more so this time around for some reason. Probably because he was dragging Iwaizumi with them, the poor guy, and probably because their classmate Akaashi had finally brought his boyfriend as well. He looked like an owl, Aikosawa noted to himself, as the couples introduced themselves to each other. It made him jealous, if he was to admit it. They seemed very happy, but with classes, two jobs, and these dancing classes, as much as Yurichiro liked to imagine himself holding onto someone's hand and introducing them to his friends, it just wasn't a reasonable thought. Even if he did like someone...

"Aiko-chan! Stop being such a loner and come say hello already!" Oikawa was waving at him from across the large dance hall, the white haired male had stopped at the door when they arrived to rest from the very long car ride, but had followed his roommates with his eyes as Oikawa had hurried to Akaashi. Their friend Akaashi was a quiet guy, too, though he didn't have any issue with talking to anyone that approached him. He was the calmest guy Yurichiro had the pleasure to know. His boyfriend, on the other hand, seemed like a regular ball of energy, bouncing around Akaashi like an excited child. Yurichiro knew he would probably get exhausted just trying to talk to him.

Adjusting his duffel bag on his shoulder, Aikosawa sprinted across the room toward the small group of men, giving a small hello in greeting. Akaashi's boyfriend, Bokuto, as he so excitedly declared, stuck out his hand to give Aikosawa a firm handshake. He had bright golden eyes and oddly styled hair that surely reminded Aikosawa of a horned owl. He couldn't help but smile at Bokuto's enthusiastic support of Akaashi's passion for dance, it was endearing for sure, and Aikosawa hated the jealous pang in his chest at the look the man gave his smaller boyfriend.

After their brief hellos, Iwaizumi and Bokuto were shoo'd away by the instructors as the three went toward the back locker rooms with the rest of the students. Oikawa was bouncing excitedly at being back, chattering away beside Aikosawa and Akaashi without a care in the world. The two elected to ignore the brunette. "So," Akaashi started, dragging Yurichiro's attention downward toward the shorter male. "Where's your boyfriend, Aikosawa?"

A snowy eyebrow raised at the question. "Akaashi-san, you know as well as anyone that I don't have a boyfriend. I don't have the time for a relationship."

Akaashi didn't look at him. "That's not what Oikawa-san said earlier."

Aikosawa's attention immediately whipped to Oikawa, who was, unsurprisingly, not there any longer. He let out an irate sigh, of course he would have no peace, even here. Oikawa was going to the suffer for this later. "Ah, well you know Oikawa. He blows everything out of proportion. It's just a crush, I guess."

"You guess? The way Oikawa made it sound, you're wrapped up pretty tight on this Asahi guy." Yurichiro hated how Akaashi made everything sound so matter-of-fact. When the white haired male sighed and tossed his bag of clothing on the floor next to his old locker, Akaashi took that as hint to drop the subject. He knew Aikosawa wasn't an affectionate guy, when they first met, he was wound so tight the black haired man thought the kid was going to combust. He was so focused on his dancing and school studies that he would have laughed Oikawa off if he had told Akaashi the other was interested in someone. The Aikosawa he knew now, though, undoubtedly had something running through his mind as he slipped into his dancing clothes. Akaashi placed a hand on the taller's shoulder, causing him to look down at him. "If you want to talk about it, we have a week." He gave Aikosawa a smile at the slow nod he received before they both finished changing and headed out into the dancing hall once more.

\---

"A ballerina dancing hall?!"

"Asahi, lower your voice! You'll be kicked out before you even get inside!"

Asahi didn't really know what he had expected, Aikosawa and Oikawa were definitely not built for anything but either ballroom or something of the sort. But, ballerinas?! The brunette didn't really expect it. Did they do theater productions? Were there really competitions for this sort of stuff? He wasn't even sure what being a ballerina entailed. Maybe once he say he'd understand. He and Suga started toward the door of the dance hall before hearing someone call out to them.

"They're in the middle of class, guys, they won't let anyone in." Asahi and Suga both turned toward the side of the doors to spot a couple of other guys standing off the side. They both had spiky hair, but one was just ridiculous. Sugawara seemed to recognize the one who had spoke. "Suga-san, I'm surprised to see you here. You here to see Oikawa?"

"Not really, Azumane wanted to check on his boyfriend." Suga had to dodge the jab to his arm, snickering at the mortified look on Asahi's face before the two walked over to the two. After a couple of quick introductions, Suga continued. "We're here to see Aikosawa-san!"

"Ah, so you're the infamous Azumane Asahi me and Oikawa have heard about for the past month or so. Nice the finally put a face to the name."

Asahi blinked slowly. Aikosawa had talked about him? For the past month? To his roommates? "Ah, yeah, that's me..."

"Aikosawa hasn't stopped talking about you since he started working at that damned bakery. It's nice to see he actually has good taste."

Asahi's cheeks flared up, earning a hearty laugh from the other man next to Iwaizumi, Bokuto if he remembered it correctly. Sugawara was no better, snickering at his red faced best friend. "Thank you, I suppose... I'm surprised he's mentioned me, I was under the impression he didn't really care for me. Or anyone, really. He never speaks at the bakery."

Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow, he looked peeved all of the sudden and Asahi wondered if he had suddenly gotten Aikosawa in trouble. The male mumbled something quietly to himself before addressing Asahi again. "Aikosawa's got really bad anxiety when he's forced to talk to people, so he likes to act like a hard ass with people he doesn't know. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, he's got a huge ass crush on you man."

The rest of the conversations were small talk, and Asahi could hardly focus on them as it was. His mind was crammed with thoughts of Aikosawa actually having a crush on him. It was a strange thought, the younger male was always so snarky and reserved around him, there was no way he would have ever guessed the he had any interest in him at all. his thoughts slowly drifted back to the computer shop Aikosawa had taken him to about a week ago. They had stopped outside the store and Aikosawa had given him this strangely intense look that Asahi kind of dismissed at the time. Was that.. Had Aikosawa maybe wanted to talk to him then? The thought gave Asahi a weird shiver up his spine.

Iwaizumi motioned toward the door not too long after, the large steel things swinging open slowly, apparently announcing that their practice was over for lunch. Iwaizumi and Bokuto headed over, the louder of the two bouncing up and down, shouting about finding someone named Akaashi as he dashed inside the building. Sugawara gave Asahi one of his relaxing smiles and headed over to the building before him, leaving Asahi to follow. The building was huge, but the inside was impressive in and of itself. The ceilings were impossible high, bright stage lights hung from wherever they could, there were long railings along the walls, said walls were made entirely of mirrors. there the occasional break in the mirrored wall for a padded mat before it continued and wrapped around to a stage. There were hallways on either side of the stage, Asahi noted that there were girls in this class as well, the halls probably led to a designated changing room or something. The stage was grand, red curtains bellowed down from the ceiling to cover whatever was resting on it. In the middle of the floor were mats, poles bolted to the floor, some suspended from the ceiling, balance beams, everything he would expect to find in an acrobatic style gymnasium. There were a few people still stretching on the floor, he noticed, apparently Iwaizumi and Bokuto's boyfriends among them given the two were hovering around another brunette and a black haired man who looked like the complete opposite of Bokuto who was squawking at him. That must be Akaashi, then. He found himself scanning the room for Aikosawa, to what seemed like no avail. He saw a girl leaning down between the two couples, she had shoulder length black hair that flowed nicely when she moved. But... what was she even doing? It looked like she was pushing something toward the ground as hard as she could, in couple second later she looked panicked jumping upright and holding her hands up, the group of men around her either laughing or trying not to. Asahi felt himself walking over out of genuine curiosity, the girl seemed very upset, what was so funny? He stopped about halfway to the group when he heard someone groan, a couple of popping sounds sounding loudly as someone stood up from in front of the panicked female. They were tall, white hair cascading down their back gently as they stood, hands on their back. One of the hands moved to wave off the nervousness the black haired female had before turning toward her with a smile that nearly gave Asahi a stroke. He couldn't hear him say much,but he did hear Iwaizumi mention his name. Asahi felt his breath hitch, wanting to run, he would have if Sugawara didn't have his hand against his back to urge him forward. That was when he fully recognized Yurichiro Aikosawa's confused expression. The brunette's heart seized at an extremely familiar voice that he hadn't heard in over a week's time question his name, his feet halting, a squeak coming from his shoes skidding on the floor. The sound tore Aikosawa's attention away from Iwaizumi almost before it even happened, his mouth barely hanging open.

They stood there for a solid minute, Asahi's brain working in overdrive while Aikosawa seemed to be frozen in time in what he could only assume was horror. Asahi had heard Aikosawa say his name in a sort of confusion that reminded him of the way the overnight IT technician had called his name when he spaced out. "Azumane-san?" It played like a strange recording, the tone of his voice was the same, the deep, tired tone was the same, the way the syllables rolled off his tongue. Everything was the same. It was the guy who worked in the call center at night. It was the punk kid who worked at the bakery. They were the same person. They were both Aikosawa.

\---

Yurichiro felt his back pop in the wrong spot, pain shooting up his spine immediately, Kiyoko was positively mortified. She apologised feverishly, waving her hands about as the two couples at either of their sides laughed at the groan he let out. It hurt like hell, but he took careful steps to stand upright, reassuring his female friend that he was okay. She seemed grateful for the reassurance, and Aikosawa offered her a smile before turning toward Iwaizumi. "Now, what were you saying? Someone's here to see me?"

"Oh, yeah. They dropped by earlier before practice had already started so we hung around outside until now." Aikosawa furrowed his brows together. Who would be here to see him? Hinata was too busy with volleyball to come by. Kenma was no doubt still asleep even though it was noon. Aone wasn't in town... He placed a hand on his hip before giving Iwaizumi's growing smirk a questioning look. "Azumane Asahi."

"Azumane-san?"

Not a second after, there was a loud squeak resounding throughout the quiet dance hall. The sound was close to the group and startled Aikosawa into looking toward the cause. His heart stopped beating. Azumane Asahi was staring at him not ten feet away from the group, and definitely in earshot of them. Asahi had a look on his face like he knew, and Aikosawa knew he did. He had blown his very carefully crafted cover in about ten seconds. The brunette was staring directly at him, eyes wide and like he'd seen a ghost. Aikosawa, on the other hand, was indeed the ghost he was looking at because he was no longer alive. He felt his throat start to close, his lungs losing all of their air, his mouth hanging onto the last syllable of Asahi's name. His friends had also stopped their chatter, Oikawa looked visibly worried all of the sudden. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. He only wanted to melt into the ground and disappear. Asahi now knew who he was. And that made Aikosawa's anxiety rear it's ugly head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was getting long so I decided to break this into two chapters,,,
> 
> Uh ooohhh, someone got found out! Get ready for the angst friends.


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of angst and mention of anxiety in this one, so if that might be something that bothers you, read with caution!

His chest started to heave in an attempt to gather air for his sore lungs, tears slowly glazing over his icy blue eyes as he took an unconscious step backwards. Aikosawa barely heard Iwaizumi call to him as his footsteps became more frantic, the older male stepping toward to take him by the elbow and calm him down. Aikosawa's mind finally snapped, his anxiety rearing back once more and knocking itself through all of his carefully constructed walls. The younger ripped his arm away from Iwaizumi's faint touch to his skin, tears finally leaving his eyes to drip to the floor. He shouted something at his roommate that made him pull his hand defensively, his reeling mind noticing too many movements. Air was coming constricting, Aikosawa's lungs burned at the effort to try and breathe. His hands were tangled in his hair suddenly, he noticed. Asahi was moving closer, he noticed.

He was moving, he noticed. His legs were burning suddenly, moving to work his way around the group of people, group of friends, that seemed far too close to him. He stepped easily around Bokuto's frantic grab at his arm, causing him to release his hair in favor of knocking the larger man away from him to get a clear shot for the open door. There was no one there. All that was there with a few quick seconds was the fresh air outside of the dance hall. He barely heard Iwaizumi and Asahi calling for him he had took off, barefooted, across the small compound toward the boarding rooms he was familiar with. He legs moved on their own, his mind blurred by panic to try and work his limbs into a familiar space. When he finally got to stop and flop onto the floor in a tightly curled ball, he hardly noticed he was a storage room.

It took almost twenty minutes to catch his breath, Yurichiro curled tighter into the far corner of the storage room. This was the room he had hidden himself in the first time he came to this camp. His first year of high school, his grandmother asked him if he wanted to go to a special dancing class to help him get back into what he loved to do. He agreed eagerly, looking forward to making his grandmother proud. But when he had arrived, and was told it was a week long, a week away from anyone else, a younger Yurichiro panicked and ran away from the instructors, straight to the dormitories. Without knowing what to do, he holed himself into a random room, which had been the store room he was currently tucked into. But he hadn't been alone, there was another boy in there with him, crying his heart out, shrieking when Aikosawa noticed him. The white haired teen had wanted to leave, but he'd heard the instructors outside the door calling for him, one was calling a different name. "Aikosawa! Tooru!! This is no time for games!"

Aikosawa had had his ear pressed against the door to try a gauge whether or not they were gone, when he heard the other boy, who he had assumed was Tooru, moving from his place on the floor. Tooru was older than him, he could tell, probably a third year in high school, but he was shorter, smaller than him by just a bit. His face had been an ugly mess of dried tears and snot, hair disheveled and all over the place. Aikosawa felt for the guy. They had decided to stay in the storage room, hide from the instructors until they eventually found them. During that time, Aikosawa found out that Tooru was, indeed, a third year in high school, his parents had forced him to come to the dancing classes because they thought it would be appropriate with his frame and his ability to play volleyball so well. He had originally agreed but, Tooru said they were strict here, scary even. So he had ran away and ended up in the storage room to keep the instructors from catching him blubbering.

From that day, Yurichiro and Oikawa Tooru had been the best of friends. Tooru had quit the dance classes for a while, leaving Aikosawa alone until the end of his third year in high school. When they reunited, it was a bittersweet moment, Aikosawa's anxiety had eaten him alive once Oikawa stopped coming to the class, he wondered if he had driven him away, and ended up becoming reclusive, trying his best to steel himself so he wouldn't get hurt, or hurt anyone, again. The day Oikawa saw him again, his face fell at the panic in his eyes that slowly turned to a sort of cold wall of ice. He invited the cold younger male to stay at his dorm with his boyfriend once he found out they went to the same college.

"Aiko-chan!" The male in question jumped in place, suddenly stopping his breathing as if it would help keep himself hidden longer. Oikawa was calling out to him. He could hear Akaashi and Bokuto calling out as well. The male shrunk into his corner, wiping at his tear stained eyes even though the tears themselves stopped during his little trip to the past. When he heard Asahi shout for him outside the door, he flinched. No, no, no, anyone but Asahi, if Asahi found him out of everyone else who could possibly wander into the storage room, he would sure break down again. He held his breath, staring daggers at the shadows peeking under the door that threatened to take away his hide away. It felt like forever until the sound of footsteps started again, Aikosawa waited until he could hear nothing else, see nothing but light dimly filter through the bottom of the closet door. A sigh escaped him as he unbunched his limbs from the tightly wound ball he had managed to pull himself into. God, he was so pathetic. After only a week of trying to pull of this charade, it had failed, and when it failed, he told himself he would be okay with it. He had already told Iwaizumi and Oikawa that he was going to come clean to Asahi after classes were over. As far as Iwaizumi knew, he had already told the brunette they needed to talk. That was evident as a lie now for certain. He really was pathetic... Lying to his friends, lying to himself, lying to Asahi...

The sob that threatened to break his silent was cut off by the creaking of the storage room door opening. Aikosawa felt his eyes widen in sheer fear, suddenly feeling very small against the walls. When no one came inside, the white haired male stood slowly, rubbing at his arm absently as he took careful steps toward the open door. Whoever it was was standing just outside against the wall next to the door, Aikosawa could barely make out a shoe from how the door was opened, he couldn't see anything else though. Stilling the shaking of his hand, he placed a hand on the door, pushing it open. His heart beat too loudly in his ears, his throat was still closed, he wouldn't be able to talk. With a second to collect what little dignity he had remaining, Aikosawa took a step forward and glanced around the corner.

\---

"Shit, I should have known better than to tell him Asahi was here! Dammit!" Iwaizumi was pacing outside of the dormitories, Oikawa trying to keep him anxious boyfriend from punching the undoubtedly solid brick wall again by following his movements. The second he saw the male's arm move, he latched on with an iron grip. "Oikawa, how could I have been so stupid? I knew Aikosawa wasn't ready, he was going to talk to Asahi after classes were over, I should have let him do it himself!"

"Iwa-chan, there was nothing you could do to keep that from happening. I've known Aiko-chan for years and I didn't think he would panic like that! He'd have been scared of being found out, sure, but no one could have known he was going to have a full on attack like that."

"I should have been able to! We're like brothers, I'm supposed to protect him, I told him I'd protect him!" Iwaizumi was shaking, his nerves shot, a hand knotted into his hair hard enough that he could almost feel a few strands come free from his scalp. He remembered back when Aikosawa first arrived with Oikawa to their dorm. The kid looked like he was delinquent pulled off of the street. If not for the fancy clothes and the bag clearly labeled 'dance gear', Iwaizumi would have thought his boyfriend had toted a homeless kid with a shit attitude to their room. Oikawa had introduced the kid as his friend from dance classes, he was going to the same college as them, and he had already talked the very lenient dean of the school into letting the freshman room with them.

"Iwa-chan, be nice to him! He has anxiety, and he's not really a talker, so don't tease him like you tease me!"

"At least he's quiet, unlike you."

Oikawa had given him an offended look before ushering the tall, lanky mute around the dorm room. Iwaizumi never thought that just a month after moving in, this Aikosawa guy would be locked in their bathroom, sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the night. If it hadn't been for Iwaizumi's very poor bladder, he probably would have never been found out, but Iwaizumi and nearly tore the door open in his hurry, but once he caught sight of a mess of limbs and white hair curled up in the tub, Iwaizumi understood what Oikawa meant. He had seen an anxiety attack before, a childhood friend of his had them, but people sort of wrote it off as just being a crybaby. But this, this was a grown man, curled up in a cold bathtub of a college dormitory, sobbing into his knees, hands pulling at his long white hair. Iwaizumi had called for Oikawa, not knowing what to do but crawl in with the freshman to try and collect his limb enough to hold him and still the quaking. There was thrashing, a lot of thrashing, screaming, things Iwaizumi wasn't used to having to deal with. Oikawa had managed to work with Iwaizumi to move Aikosawa from the confines of the small tub, taking his friend to the bed in an attempt to get him to calm down with something soft and comfortable. The memory of Aikosawa rocking slowly next to Oikawa with a pillow locked into a death grip and staring at the wall like a terrified child burned it's way into Iwaizumi's brain.

The next day they had decided to stay in the dorm with Aikosawa, just in case he had another spell. Iwaizumi had stayed with him while Oikawa went to go and get some soups, something easy for Aikosawa to eat since he had mentioned his stomach hurt. They had remained silent for a long time when the white haired male spoke up. "I'm sorry I kept you guys up last night..."

Iwaizumi immediately dismissed the notion, starting to say it was okay, but he noticed the younger male start to tremble again. He felt himself panic, Oikawa wouldn't be home for a while, if Aikosawa started again, he didn't think he could help him. Trying to figure out something to say was hard, and as the silence went on he noticed the other fidget more, he looked like he was on the verge of tears again. 'Think, stupid, think!' He did the first thing that came to mind and reached over, placing a hand firmly on the now shaking male's shoulder. It seemed to snap him out of his thought process, earning Iwaizumi what could only be described as a fearful look. He swallowed, offering a tiny smile. "Don't worry, Oikawa and I are here for you. I might not know you very well yet, but I'm here, I'll help keep you safe."

Back then that had seemed to keep Aikosawa happy. Protection from his own mind, and Iwaizumi easily fell into his big brother role, keeping an eye out for the younger male whenever he needed it. Became a solid shoulder for him to lean on. That was only eight months ago, and he had already failed him. Oikawa was checking his hand, it was bloody and sore from where he had, in his frustration of not finding the runaway male, punched the old jagged brick of the dormitory building.

Oikawa gave his boyfriend a glance, a hand reaching up to brush away tears that threatened to fall. Iwaizumi never had been much of a crier, it took a lot of stress to get his hardheaded boyfriend to crack. Oikawa leaned forward, tapping his forehead to Iwaizumi's gently. "Iwa-chan... He'll be okay, we'll find him sooner or later... Don't cry."

"I'm not crying, Shittykawa..."

Oikawa smiled, pressing a quick kiss to each of his boyfriend's cheeks. "Sure. Iwa-chan?" When said male looked up at him from under his lashes, Oikawa gave him another smile, bumping their noses together. "I love you, Iwa-chan."

Iwaizumi looked away from his boyfriend, a slow blush forming across his cheeks, but his arms snaked around the slightly taller male's waist. "Shut up already..." He looked back, staring into his stupid boyfriend's liquid chocolate eyes before letting the tiniest smile grace his lips. "Bakawa..." He ignored the offended grumble the other gave him to press a slow kiss to his soft lips. When they both pulled away, he laced his hands with Oikawa's and smiled. He hoped Oikawa was right about Aikosawa. For the kid's sake, he hoped he was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will probably be the last chapter for a while. I need some help coming up with who found Aiko! I'm torn between either Suga or Asahi, or maybe even someone different that might be at the dance classes! If you guys have any ideas who could be, be sure to let me know! I hope you guys liked it!
> 
> Also yay IwaOi fluff is my favorite,,,,


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally got around to proof-reading this, hope you guys like it! Mama Suga to the rescue!

Sugawara had been roaming around with their makeshift search party for quite a while, feeling very intensely out of place with the group of what was undoubtedly Aikosawa's very close friends, save the man with the owl-like eyes. When he watched the altercation take place in the dance hall, he had no words for the very sudden outburst. There was evidently something very complex going on between Asahi and this Aikosawa, something that involved more than he had originally thought. It plagued the silver haired man to no end as he shuffled along with his brunette friend down the same corridor they had already checked several times. He couldn't bring himself to pry into Asahi's thoughts, he looked horribly ragged and lost within his own mind, as if he had caused this. Koushi could hardly think of a way to quell the no doubt raging storm brewing in his friend's mind. This was something even his 'motherly' handling couldn't do much to resolve.

Eventually they had traveled back to the dance hall to gather Aikosawa's belongings for him, and graciously took a small bag of food from the only girl that had been at the ordeal, Kiyoko, for when they found the younger male. It was agreed upon that he would need food, having not been found for what was coming up on an hour. Twenty minutes more passed by in their search, Iwaizumi and Oikawa had excused themselves, and Akaashi and Bokuto had decided to look elsewhere on the compound lest the white haired male had moved during their time away. Suga took this chance alone with Asahi to see if he could get some answers about this whole ordeal.

"So, Asahi, are you going to explain what all of that was about back there? Maybe clear the air a little up there?" Suga poked teasingly at the side of the taller's head, causing Asahi to stutter to a halt at the apparent intrusion to his thoughts in order to comprehensively swat his friend's hand away.

The look Sugawara received though wasn't of the usual mild annoyance he expected whenever he intruded on the male's personal space, but sadness, even stress if the creases in his forehead were any indicator. It gave the shorter pause before he settled on placing a hand on the brunette's shoulder. Asahi took a fairly ragged breath before staring down at the duffel bag and thin plastic bag for the missing male in his hands. "Aikosawa is the same guy as the overnight IT line call center operator. It makes sense, now that I know, why he never talked to me. Especially if what Iwaizumi-san told me earlier is true."

Suga blinked up at his friend, the look etched on the usual tough facade was unreadable by any means. Iwaizumi-san had mentioned that Aikosawa had harbored a crush on Asahi for quite some time, but was far too anxious a person to speak to him. Suga slowly pieced it together in his own mind, those nerves were probably because Asahi called him almost regularly on the overnight line, and Asahi had thought of him as kind of young jerk that worked at the bakery. Surely talking to Asahi after discovering he was indeed the one he talked to on almost a daily occasion probably gave the younger male a start. "And?" he began, "How do you feel about the fact that he is? Does it change anything to you?"

"No." The answer was quick, near immediate, but Asahi's unreadable expression never faltered. "Nothing is different. It just feels a little strange having found out like this. As if it were some kind of dirty secret he had to keep to himself. It feels strange... Knowing that he's somewhere nearby, scared because that secret is out. All I want to do is help him feel better, but I can't help but feel like this is my fault, I should have let him be. Should have let him work everything out on his own instead of butting into his personal life like it was my business in the first place."

The silver haired male sighed before giving Asahi a small smile and a pat on the shoulder. Asahi glanced over at him, sighing in defeat almost before returning a fraction of a smile. Suga's warm atmosphere never failed to always make the taller's guard crumble, no matter what was on his mind. It was infuriating to say the least. When Suga took the two bags away from him, Asahi raised an eyebrow before being ushered away, the other chirping about taking a break for lunch while he continued his final lap around the dormitories. He would have insisted on staying, but even Daichi, one of the most resilient people Asahi has ever known, knew better than to bicker with the mom that was Sugawara Koushi.

\---

Aikosawa felt his stomach do a quick flip before settling as he peered around the door of the storage room. It wasn't Asahi, he silently thanked, but he didn't recognize who it was off-hand. The shorter male gave him a gentle smile, his seemingly flawless features crinkling at the effort, even the beauty mark under his eye moved a fraction. It gave him a start, but he moved toward the hall still. The taller of the two vaguely remembered the silvery hair from his dash from the dance hall, the closest to the door, the only one who hadn't been moving. He felt himself loosen, his tense muscles going slack at the thought that someone hadn't tried to grab him, immediately feeling safe with this mystery man. He also took note of his belongings on the floor next to the other's feet, along with a plastic bag and some sort of box inside of it. His things... he had forgotten about them during his sudden panic attack, they must have gotten them for him. So that was why it had been so quiet for a while...

"Aikosawa-san?" Said male's eyes darted back up to the stranger in front of him. He was still smiling, and the look alone gave Aikosawa a sense of unending peace. It reminded him of the smile his grandmother would give him when he was scared, and it coaxed him fully out of the storage room and into the hallway. This seemed to please the other into a brighter smile, if that was even possible. He held out a hand to the male, which he slowly took into his own. "It's a pleasure to meet you, although the circumstances are a bit less than desirable, I'm sure. My name is Sugawara Koushi, I'm a friend of Asahi-san's."

Aikosawa stilled, but managed to swallow down the rising panic threatening to choke him. This person didn't seem to be here to bother him, quite the opposite, he seemed to be here to comfort him at least. He could handle this. With a small cough to clear away whatever panic was stuck in his throat, Aikosawa shook his hand once and mumbled a small hello. Again, the beaming smile seemed to grow brighter. When Sugawara motioned for him to take a seat across the hall from where he currently was, he hesitated, repeated to himself that Sugawara was being polite to him, and took to the spot directly across from the silvery haired man. His duffel bag was moved toward him, along with the plastic bag, which he identified to have a lunch box of some kind in it, and Aikosawa graciously took to gathering his belongings into his lap, taking a slow breath of relief at having something familiar with him.

"Asahi-san... Isn't upset with you, you know."

Aikosawa's eyes widened a fraction, glancing over at Sugawara who was looking down the hallway toward the direction of a window. He didn't know what to say, it was as if this stranger had been with him in the storage room that whole time while he sorted through his anxious thoughts. His eyes drifted back down to his duffel bag, hands clutching at the handles tightly. The thought that Asahi wasn't angry with him was comforting, but he couldn't help feel like something had to have been wrong. The second the thought graced him though, the man across from him interrupted.

"He doesn't want you to be scared of him, if that makes sense. Just because he figured out who you are doesn't mean he's upset. How should I put this..." Sugawara bit at his lip before looking back at Aikosawa. "He sort of understands the situation. Why you never talked to him in the bakery, because you didn't want him to know you were the one talking to him and teasing him about his old computer as the IT tech. He told me about how his roommate teased him about liking your voice, and you overheard, and I'm just as guilty, I've done it too. But when he decided to come here to see you, he wasn't thinking about the IT tech, he was thinking about you. He wanted to come see you, the guy from the bakery."

Sugawara offered a smile, but Aikosawa only stared at him, his face a light shade of pink. Asahi had been thinking about him? He came here to see him? He had, of course, known he liked his voice not that Asahi had known it was his, but to think that his upperclassman had chosen to drive up this far to come see him, even if he had been a snotty brat to him? It was kind of embarrassing. He hesitated for a moment before giving the male in front of him his full attention. "But... He really isn't mad? I... I lied to him, though, I hid who I was from him. Why isn't he mad?"

Another smile. "That's just who Asahi is, he's not as rough as he looks. Iwaizumi-san told us that you have some... anxiety. Asahi understands now why you wouldn't want to tell him who you were. Not only Asahi, but I like to think that all of your friends understand that. Now, it's been a while since you've wandered off, why don't you eat?"

Aikosawa opened his mouth to object, not wanting to burden this nice man any further before his stomach gave a slow growl in protest. His cheeks immediately flushed a darker shade as Sugawara chuckled, glancing away from the now very red faced male. They sat in silence while Aikosawa ate, the white haired male grateful for the food and the company. Asahi understood... He wasn't upset, he came to see him, him... He barely heard Sugawara chuckled at the smile he felt on his lips as he thought about the same string of words over and over again. Once he was finished with his food, Sugawara stood, offering him a hand up, which he took graciously. His legs were sore from practice and his sudden sprint across the compound. He walked slowly behind the silver haired male, duffel bag tightly gripped in his hand as they headed for the dormitory doors. The steel doors gave him a sense of dread. Who was on the other side? Oikawa? Akaashi? Asahi? His chest seized up again, but Sugawara grabbed onto his hand as if he were a small child and tugged him along. The look the other had once again reminded him of his grandmother, and a smile crossed his lips as he followed the older outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably not going to be able to work on this or anything else for a while, the holiday season has 'offically' begun at work and I'll be there pretty much everyday of the week they can make me work, plus Pokemon is real and I'm addicted. Please bear with me!!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little shorter but I feel like it gets it's point across

The second the doors opened to the dormitories, Oikawa was leaping at the taller of the two males that were walking through them. He was practically blubbering all over the guy, apparently torn between being angry that he had ran away from him, worried about if he was okay or still shaken up, and just continually blubbering. Asahi faintly heard a "we can have him leave if you need us to, he'll understand" which made him wince a bit, but it was true. Once he had been none too gracefully shoveled out of the steel doors by Koushi, Asahi was greeted with the rest of the search party. Greeted was kind of an exaggeration, more like immediately interrogating by the now blubbering man latched to Aikosawa's arm.

"Who do you think you are, huh?! Scaring my precious Chi-chan like that!" A finger had been jabbed against his chest rather hard, causing he to wince through his shock at the sudden attack. Asahi felt guilty for a moment before the shorter, more calm, black haired male yanked the offending brunette away from him. Oikawa had grumbled about defending Aikosawa's honor to this man, Akaashi he had gathered, before the black haired male gave him an apologetic look.

"Uhm, I-I'm sorry for disturbing your class, it was rather rude of me... And I'm sorry for causing any problems, I didn't know he would run off like that."

"Hmph! No excuse!" Oikawa had crossed his arms across his chest, apparently trying to give Asahi his best intimidating look. It looked more comical than anything, but he decided to not say anything about it. Within a few seconds, though, the aggression was dissolved into a slightly fake smile, but at least his eyes had softened. "It's not your fault, Aiko has been like that since I've known him. He can't help it himself." A hand was extended. "For formality's sake, Oikawa Tooru."

"Azumane Asahi." When he took Oikawa's hand, he noted that the grip was a lot harder than it should have been. His fault or not, he had the distinct feeling Oikawa wasn't a fan of him.

"Well, Azumane-san! What about it, what brought you here? Aside from stalking Chi-chan like a mad man." Okay, ouch, that was uncalled for. The angry looking Iwaizumi to his left smacked him on the back of his head, causing a series of grumbles about honor again.

"Well, Suga suggested we come up here, he knew where it was..."

"Suga-chan! How could he, I'll have a word with him later!"

Asahi grimaced and shot a silent apology to Koushi before sighing. "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare him or anything. I just wanted to come see him I-- I didn't think I could honestly wait an entire week before seeing him again. It's selfish, I get it, but I needed to see him just once. If I had known at all that he had anxiety of any kind before accidently hearing him talk then I would have just waited outside." Asahi raked a hand through his hair, letting out a shaky breath. "I just want to see him, then I'll be happy to leave you all be."

Oikawa looked about like he had before, but the tiny glint in his eye made Asahi swallow nervously. "You're not going anywhere now! You'll stay in the guest building with Iwa-chan and Bokuto!"

The taller brunette blinked before confusion set into his features. He had opened his mouth to say something, but Oikawa annoyingly threw a hand up, jabbed him in the chest again and squawked about not saying a word. Asahi had resigned himself to silence until the steel doors had swung open. Now, as Aikosawa practically struggled to pry Oikawa off of his arm with a oddly steeled look of determination, Asahi couldn't help but smile. Apparently Koushi was better at this 'mom' thing than he'd given him credit for. Said male looked over toward him and gave him a discreet thumbs-up before being wrangled in with Iwaizumi to aid Aikosawa in removing the still attached Oikawa.

"So, are you going to be staying in the guest lodgings, or are you going to leave?" Asahi jumped nearly out of his skin at the cooled voice next to him, but gave Akaashi a glance. "Oikawa is such a pushy person, but he's harmless. Usually. He probably only said what he did because he's Aikosawa's best friend. There's no real malice to it, rest assured." The look the shorter gave Asahi was rather placid, but there was a tiny smile that gave the brunette a bit of ease.

"I don't know... I'll have to ask Aikosawa if it's okay, I don't want to impose any more than I already have."

There was a moment of silence between the two, Bokuto had leapt in on the Oikawa removal surgery at this point, now working with Iwaizumi to keep the brunette from reattaching himself to the now calm Aikosawa. He wasn't looking over at them, in fact it looked as if he was trying to avoid having to, making small talk with Koushi. Koushi was energetically patting the taller male's shoulder. Asahi jumped again when Akaashi finally decided to speak. "He'd like it if you did. I may not be his best friend, we've only known each other for maybe a year, but the way he talked about you during the last class makes me certain that if you asked him, nothing would make him say no." Akaashi gave the now red faced Asahi a look that made him stutter away from the intensity. "That boy has been hung up on you for a while, it would seem. He's been at what's probably his most vulnerable. Nothing will make him say no."

Akaashi gave him a pat on the arm before shuffling over to the group. Asahi watched him, mind spinning far too quickly to full process that someone was coming toward him. He was still trying to work through the 'he's been hung up on you for a while' when someone cleared their throat, giving Asahi a start. He had to blink a few times before he finally registered he was staring into a determined set of icy blue eyes. The burning in his face was only mirrored by Aikosawa's. Asahi slowly found himself relaxing, even if the male in front of him was evidently in some sort of internal struggle. His bottom lip was caught in his teeth, his eyes looked like he was torn between crying and being some level of angry, his hands were white knuckled around the straps of his duffel bag. He had to look up at Asahi just a little, and Asahi felt like he was going to cry at the fact that his white lashes were so long, hiding his eyes just enough to make it so he couldn't make solid contact. They stood there in silence for a while, Asahi was reminded of the time the had went to the computer shop, when Aikosawa had whirled around and given him the same look. The look that had confused him so much.

He felt like he finally understood that look from then. When Aikosawa finally released his lip and opened his mouth, Asahi nearly dissolved into the earth. That voice was one he would never get used to. "Asahi-san, I'd like to apologise..."

Asahi hated himself for interrupting, but he couldn't let him apologise for something that was blatantly his fault. "No, don't, it's not your fault! I should have waited outside, I was just... Too eager, I suppose is the only way I can put it. I should be the one apologising, even after Iwaizumi-san told me about how you felt I decided to--"

"Wait, Iwaizumi told you what?"

Oh, that was a new tone. Aikosawa's expression went from confused to nearly livid in about a second flat and Asahi was actually worried he was going to die right there. There was fire in those icy eyes when he whirled around to shout toward the now retreating group. Iwaizumi shouted something like 'you're welcome' before taking off. Aikosawa was visibly seething, Asahi would have sworn he could see steam billowing out of his ears, but when he turned back toward Asahi, his expression changed once more, his face now red from apparent embarrassment. He mumbled a quick apology before giving Asahi the tiniest of smiles. Asahi realised he was far too weak to handle this, even though Aikosawa was very blatantly embarrassed, that smile was gorgeous. It was different from the smirks he'd been given at the bakery. It was like nothing he had ever thought he'd see, and the only thought he could hear ringing around in his mind was that he wanted to see that smile more. Brighter, wider, maybe even with that chipper laughter he had burned into the back of his mind from the last time they had talked.

"Well, mister IT tech, you're not such an enigma now, are you?" He thought maybe he had made another bad move. Aikosawa's expression cooled, the smile fading slowly. Oh, was he really THIS bad at talking to everyone? There was an almost tangible silence hanging in the air before Aikosawa's expression twisted into the only one Asahi decided he ever wanted to cause.

He didn't have to wait long for the laughter, it turned out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I only really have one more portion of this planned out and it's got a kinda lengthy time skip so if anyone has some fluffy goodness I could maybe work into what little I do have in mind, please feel free to leave a comment with it!! I'll see what I can do!


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Asahi doesn't know how to ask for a date

Usually he was never bashful about his dancing, from a young age he had always loved to dance, in school, at home, wherever he could find the time, space, and inspiration, he danced. He had originally gone to America when he younger for dance. They had more contemporary styles than in Japan, newer things for him to learn. After elementary school, his parents passed away from what he was told was a very violent illness. His grandmother didn't have the money to take him in, so she suggested he go abroad, go to junior high in America, follow his dreams. Being young and willing to try anything, a ten year old Aikosawa went to live with his aunt and uncle that had moved to America some time ago. He didn't really remember them, but they seemed like very nice people.

Until they found a way to use him.

Being in America was hard enough to begin with. He couldn't speak any English, what he could say was butchered and broken by his accent so it was nearly impossible to understand anything other than 'hello'. That was hurtle number one in school. Number two was the attitude of his fellow students. Most of them were cruel, they poked fun at whatever they could. His accent, his hair, his voice. His dancing. His first month at school was hard, his aunt and uncle never helped him with his work and eventually his teachers had some pity one him and gave him time after classes to help him. At least, for a while, until his English improved and he could understand most of what was going on, even if he could speak very well. The children were the only thing keeping him from somewhat enjoying his time in school. Once they had started to pull his hair and twist things into it so hard they had to nearly be cut out. At some point during the first half of his first year, he begged his aunt to let him cut his hair just short enough to still pull it up. They teased him about his voice, what kind of ten year old had a voice so deep already? It was nothing like what he grew into in high school, but it was enough to set loose the hounds.

During his second half of his first year, it got worse.

One of Aikosawa's teachers had caught a glimpse of him dancing in the school gymnasium long after the other children were gone. She didn't tease him, rather she started to give him lessons in more contemporary dances, freestyles, everything he was too afraid to ask his relatives to help him learn. Her name was Ms. Miyagi, a retired dance instructor, a sweet middle aged lady with pretty blond hair and brown eyes. Aikosawa loved dancing with her, she gave him hope that he would be able to follow his dreams after all. It wasn't until a few older boys caught him after gym class did everything turn for the worst. They had walked in while he was alone, recorded him dancing, then spread it like wildfire. He had decided to keep his dancing in America private, for this very reason. A few days later his classmates began to call him names that he didn't understand, his relatives had been brought in to the school office to discuss the bullying and were shown the video as well. From there, he became a sort of tool. They pulled him to a strenuous dance class on the weekends, pushed him so hard he nearly injured himself. Entered him into a dancing competition during the summer.

He won. They took the money for themselves.

He quit dance.

Throughout the rest of his middle school years, Aikosawa resigned to being a mute. He refused to talk unless a teacher called on him. He didn't try to make friends. He didn't speak to his relatives. To them, if he didn't dance, he wasn't worth their time any more than he had ever been before. During his second year of junior high, he got into volleyball. That became his love until he moved back to Japan. His grandmother welcomed him back, treated him well. He resumed his dancing career his third year of high school, after deciding the intensity of volleyball wasn't his liking.

And Aikosawa decided he was never going to be ashamed of dancing again. It was all he had ever had, and he had it back. He continued his dancing career into college, even after his grandmother passed away and his only family left was gone, he swore he'd never give up on what he loved, never be ashamed of anything he did.

Right now, though, with a set of chocolate eyes he could practically feel watching every move he made, he felt a little embarrassed. Usually, the only people who watched any of his routines were his friends, some of his classmates, whatever visitors they had which were usually just Iwaizumi and Bokuto. He was fine with that, it gave him a reason to do more, to enjoy himself more. Asahi was staring holes into him though, and they were very uncomfortable indeed. He tried to move his movements fluid, like usual. His joints felt stiff, like they would lock up at any second. Aikosawa was trying his damnedest to keep from looking over at the brunette that was seated next to Iwaizumi, leaning forward like he could look nowhere else, but it was like he was being eyed as prey. It was a silly thought, Asahi wouldn't hurt a fly, but those brown eyes were strangely alight and it made the white haired male's stomach do flips that threw him off step a few times.

He ended his routine with a quick bow at the waist as the song he had suddenly forgotten about ended. He didn't want to look up, his chest was heaving from the effort of the dance and his hair was probably plastered against his forehead like plastic. Aikosawa took a few moments to catch his breath, steel himself to look up at his friends and the few spectators in the dance hall before starting to straighten himself out. Though, it was hard to do now, considering a very strong pair of arms was around his frame, giving the male a start. His body was immediately trapped against another, far more built, chest, his face nearly buried into the connected shoulder. His eyes widened drastically in the initial shock, he could hear Bokuto cackling and hooting at them which caused his exhaustion reddened cheeks to flair even more.

Asahi finally pulled away from the, surprisingly vice-like, hug to rest his hands on Aikosawa's shoulders. A smile stretched across the taller's lips, causing Aikosawa's face to burn even more. The expression was so endearing that the dancer couldn't help but return a small smile to him.

"That was wonderful! I've never seen so much... So much _emotion_ in a dance before!" Asahi's eyes were just as bright as his smile, he looked like was beyond actual words. It confused Aikosawa, the routine hadn't been anything too special... "I felt like I was watching something personal, almost like I shouldn't have been. Does that even make sense?"

Aikosawa shrugged, smiling up at the brunette a little wider. "Asahi-san, there's not much that your try to express that makes much sense anyways."

Usually, Asahi would have deflated at that sort of remark, especially coming from Aikosawa, but it had been about three days since he had shown up at the dancing class, and he was evidently used to it by now. He just smiled a little wider, released Aikosawa's shoulders, and chuckled. "With you, I think that's okay."

Aikosawa's felt his cheeks burn impossibly hotter, tearing his eyes away from Asahi's with a quiet huff. The brunette snickered before turning around and walking over toward their group of friends, Aikosawa following quietly behind him, glaring out the look Oikawa was giving him. He'd surely never hear the end of it.

\----

Day six. Today was the last day of practices before the apparent resting day. Iwaizumi had filled him in on how the classes work on day two. There were six days of nothing but training and routines. It always left all of the students exhausted, so the seventh day was usually a day to relax. There were morning practices, but once noon hit, the rest of the day and night were for them to do whatever they wanted. Most of the students used that time to head home, a lot of them lived pretty far away it seemed. Asahi had assumed he was going to do the same with Koushi, Aikosawa had rode up with Oikawa so they would probably be leaving at different times. Iwaizumi and Oikawa had other plans apparently.

Asahi was currently sitting off to the side with Bokuto, the wild haired man was yammering on excitedly about Akaashi's routine, among other things. It seemed like he had far too much energy, but Asahi couldn't help but smile at the enthusiasm the other had for his boyfriend. From their brief interactions, Asahi had gathered that they met in high school. Akaashi had rather hesitantly invited Bokuto to come a watch his classes one week, and now the owl-eyed man attended every class Akaashi went to. He never got enough of watching Akaashi glide around, even when they had to do pair dances, nothing could ever tear his eyes away. Asahi could never understand what that was like, Bokuto seemed to whole-heartedly love Akaashi and it was the sweetest thing. The brunette was soon saved from the unrelenting swooning next to him when the other couple at the dance classes came up to him and motioned him aside.

"Is there something wrong?"

The two gave each other a look before grinning at Asahi. He didn't like that look at all.

"What did you plan on doing tomorrow, Asahi-san?" Oikawa was giving him one of those weird looks, like he was stuck between sickeningly sweet and pissed as hell. How Iwaizumi ever managed to deal with that, Asahi would never understand and he applauded the man for his ability to. When he didn't answer right away, Oikawa tsk'd. "We have a wonderful idea for you! Why not take Aikosawa out for a nice afternoon? Poor guy is exhausted!"

"I thought he came here with you?"

"He did."

Asahi raised an eyebrow, trying to work out how that could possibly work, when Iwaizumi interjected. "I'll take Oikawa home, Bo came with Akaashi, Suga drove you here. You and Aiko can ride back in Trashykawa's car."

Oikawa threw a glare at Iwaizumi before pointing a finger at Asahi. "You're not driving either! I don't think I trust you with my baby."

Asahi held his hands up, trying to keep his expression steady, which was already failing him with the sudden amount of planning these two had already done to assure this would happen. "How do you even know Aikosawa will want to? I mean, he's going to be tired! Surely he'd just want to rest--"

"He's say yes, trust me!"

"I'm afraid to do that."

"Excuse me!" Asahi flinched away from the squawking brunette jabbing at his chest while Iwaizumi tossed his head back to cackle before smacking Oikawa between the shoulders, sending the brunette wheezing. "Look," Oikawa started, shoving at Iwaizumi to save himself from another assault, "you're going to ask him out. It's the least you could do!"

"The.. least I could do?" Ah, Oikawa was probably referring to the first day they had come here, with Aikosawa's panic attack. "Well, still, if he doesn't want to, won't the ride back be kind of, I dunno, awkward? I really don't want to make him anymore uncomfortable."

Oikawa simply snorted, mumbled something about not possibly making anything he's already done worse, and turned away without another word about it. Iwaizumi threw him what looked like the fakest apologetic look ever before waving once and shuffling after his grumbling boyfriend.

This was going to be hell.

\----

Asahi had finally managed to gather up enough courage to look for Aikosawa. Koushi had come by the dance hall some time after Iwaizumi and Oikawa had left, tried his best to give Asahi some sort of motivation, but the brunette simply felt like he was going to be ill. Violently ill. He'd never asked anyone out, ever! How was he supposed to even start that kind of conversation? Was it supposed to be super casual, work the question in? Was he supposed to try and be what Suga called 'smooth' and drop a couple of hints? Hell, they already knew they liked each other, they weren't in junior high writing love notes for god's sake. They were grown men! Somehow, that made him even more nervous. Asahi was a mess of nerves when he finally found Aikosawa in the dancer's dormitories, chatting with a couple of the female dancers. He recognized one was Kiyoko, the poor girl who had been at the fiasco a nearly a week ago. The other was a short blond girl, talking in a way that made her seems so animated, but she was clearly nervous, she had an expression Asahi found himself wearing on several occasions himself. His long, white hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail, the hair that usually framed his face pinned back with what looked like bobby pins, a smile in his eyes and gracing his lips so genuinely Asahi felt his heart stutter a little. Not to mention the other male was wearing some sort of cooling suit they were required to wear during workouts to keep themselves from overheating before practices. They were tight, clung to muscles whether they were naturally prominent or not, and left nothing to the imagination. Thank the gods they had to wear pants over the shorts the suits came with. Asahi would have had a couple strokes if not.

He was pulled from his thoughts before they could get away further away from where he needed them to be by Aikosawa himself. He had waved a quick goodbye to the girls he had been talking to and made the quick jog over to the brunette who hadn't moved from the front door, he slowly realized, while he had been staring at the slightly shorter male. His ponytail swayed a bit behind his back when he came to a stop in front of him, flashing him one of those small but powerful smiles. "Asahi-san, did you need something from me?" 

Okay, Asahi, don't blow it. The brunette drew a sharp breath through his nose, looking anywhere but at Aikosawa. The other raised a brow, following his eyes by trying to sidestep into his field of view, snickering when Asahi stubbornly turned his head away again. "Honestly, do I look that bad, Asahi-san? I'm hurt!"

"What? No, no, you look great! Better than great, really. Especially with your hair tied back like that--" Aikosawa quirked a eyebrow, a laugh escaping him as Asahi covered his mouth, then rubbed that hand over his face roughly. Dammit Asahi, you're a grown man, stop acting so nervous.

"Well, noted, I'll have to remember to tie it back more often then." Aikosawa laughed, Asahi's heart stopped before roughly thrumming against his chest at the sound. "Really, Asahi-san, you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just..." Asahi bit the inside of cheek, the hand resting on his cheek moving to his neck. Don't blow it. "I was wondering... If you were going to be busy tomorrow? After practice, I mean!"

"Well, Oikawa will be driving me home? I thought I already told you I'd be going straight home? And you said Sugawara-san was driving you back early in the morning for classes?"

Oh, right.

"A-ah, well, something came up! Actually, Koushi won't be able to give me a ride..."

"Oh, well that's unfortunate. Will you be riding with Iwaizumi perhaps?"

"No, but Oikawa will-"

"Oikawa is driving me home, Asahi-san..." Aikosawa's eyebrows knit together in a scowl, his arms crossing across his chest. "Is this some strange practical joke? Because they aren't your forte, I must say."

Gods, just spit it out you fool.

"Well, no, it's not but.."

"But?"

Asahi really, just say the words!

"I-I was wondering if..."

Aikosawa raised a brow again.

"I was wondering if you would go out with me tomorrow afternoon, after practice!"

Aikosawa blinked very slowly. Asahi swallowed the last of his pride before trying to prepare himself for whatever probable rejection was headed his way. When Aikosawa laughed, placed a hand on his shoulder, and cracked a wide smile, he surly felt doomed. He nearly melted when Aikosawa turned his head away just a bit, let his hand linger before pulling it away, and tried his best to hide a faint smile.

"I'd love to."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this was a good one, considering my lack of an update for a little while! I'm not very good at writing dates or anything leading up to them so! If you guys could, please leave a comment with some sort of date idea they could go on, I'd appreciate it! It'll help move it along a little faster, and if anyone has a date idea that I don't use, I might use it for my KagsxReader fic since I need one there too,,,,
> 
> I hope you guys liked it!


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